IS EXERCISE MAKING YOU GAIN WEIGHT? HERE IS WHY

 Have you ever made a decision to finally be healthy? Made time for the gym, showed up, did all the work and then you gained weight? Before you give up on healthy living and exercise, read this and maybe it will explain why.

Let’s start with one that is not your fault. Inflammation! This is a normal and helpful body process that helps your body to protect itself. When you are hurt or you have an infection, that part of your body gets swollen with fluid retention in an attempt to heal that infected or hurt body part. When you start a new workout program, you get really tiny tissue tears which make you feel sore the following day. In an attempt to heal the tiny tears, your body gets inflamed retaining fluid. This fluid retained in your body will make you weigh more when you stand on a scale. Good news is that it is just temporary and it disappears in about two weeks tops and you will get a lower reading. So don’t give up, keep at it.

Another reason would be that you compensate by overeating. At the end of a workout there is that feeling like your heart is in your mouth and your body cannot take anymore. Most of the time you feel like you don’t even have the energy to take a shower and if someone was to ask you how many calories you think you just burnt you would probably say a thousand or so. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if your workout was like 30 minutes and it was fairly strenuous, you probably burnt an approximate of 150 to 300 calories depending on your weight. So, when you are compensating with food, keep in mind that you might not have burnt as many calories as you think. A solution to this would be to know how many calories you burn and adjust accordingly. My recommendation would be to have an after workout snack that is healthy and that way you don’t feel the urge to eat an elephant afterwards.

Make sure you know what to eat and how much to eat. If you still don’t know how much to eat for your height, weight, age and activities you might still be getting more calories than you use and that would still make you gain weight.A solution to this is to go online and calculate your energy needs for a day then balance what you eat with your activities/ exercise. Also make sure you make healthy food choices.  Calories are not equal.

A reduction in non-exercise physical activity would be another reason your weight is not coming down as you anticipated. It is good that you exercised but it doesn't mean that when you leave the gym you go home and just sit down. If you were taking part in other activities other than working out, keep doing them and that will help you burn more calories and lose that weight faster.

Muscle is heavier than fat. For the same volume of fat and muscle, muscle will be heavier and for this reason you might weigh more as you gain muscle and lose fat. Now if this is why your number on the scale is going up, don’t fret. You should actually be happy because that means that you are more fit and you burn more calories even at rest.

I hope this gives you strength to keep going and good luck.